Mutations

Mutations are constantly occurring in our genome from generation to generation. They lead to genetic variation between individuals of a population. Not all mutations are equal though, and most mutations go unknown and unseen by most of the population. This is because there are several different types of mutations that can occur. One of these mutations is a missense mutation, which results in a change in one DNA base pair. This causes one amino acid to become another and can either be harmful or unnoticeable. Nonsense mutations are when an amino acid is changed into a stop codon, prematurely ending the protein. This can be catastrophic for the protein involved. Finally, insertions or deletions result in frameshift mutations, which change every amino acid after the affected area. This can completely change protein function and be devastating.